God Showed Up

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

My pastor Joshua Johnson recently preached a sermon that deeply resonated with me, and still does, proclaiming that "God showed up"-- which scripture records time after time, and which my pastor knew from experience God still does.  (The YouTube of that sermon, which I highly recommend, is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHCUjZurp2I.)

My reading the following week included a Canadian pastor's blog, where he talked about the prayer in Isaiah 63:15-64:12.  Isaiah 64:1-2 especially caught my attention, since it too talked about God showing up:

"Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down,
That the mountains might quake at Your presence—
As fire kindles the brushwood, as fire causes water to boil—
To make Your name known to Your adversaries,
That the nations may tremble at Your presence !"

There are many reasons we do NOT want God to show up.  Most importantly, because His Presence is tremendously frightening.  That "rending the heavens" thing would scare most of us out of our boots.  That's undoubtedly why His first words, and the first words of His messengers, are nearly always, "Be not afraid !"

 Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel captured very well the feeling we cannot but experience in God's Presence: "God is not nice.  God is not an uncle.  God is an earthquake.”  A character in C. S. Lewis' The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe similarly describes Aslan: "Who said anything about safe?  'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.”

We have reason to be fearful. This King before us is good.  And in our gut, we all know we are not.  However cleverly we rationalize to ourselves that we are "a good person," we know all the great wrongs and hurts we've done.  We also know in our gut-theology that the Law's sentence for our crimes is death.  So it's a terrifying thing to stand before the Lawmaker, Who is also the only Judge of men's hearts.  We know...and know that He knows better than anyone else could...that we deserve death.

If He lets us live, it's only because His mercy is as perfect as His justice.  But the self-delusion we have always called "my life"...pride in my own way, my own righteousness, my own sufficiency, my own "cleanness"...is left in ashes by the Holiness of His Presence.  We would all say what Isaiah said when God "showed up" while he was quietly worshipping in the Temple:

“Woe is me, for I am ruined!
Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I live among a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”     (Isaiah 6:5)

At the same time, we want more than anything else for God to "show up."  We want blessing; and our gut-knowledge is that there is no blessing...no peace, no joy, no provision, no protection...outside His Presence.  If only He could be persuaded to mail His presents to us, like a kindly uncle...instead of inconveniently bringing them in Person.

But that's the way He does it.  Our terrifying, blessing, King, chooses to come Himself: and no one can second-guess the King's decisions.

This season is, of course, the most appropriate possible time to talk of God "showing up" in Person.  This post bookends yesterday's "Why I Hate Christmas:" it might be subtitled "What's Real About Christmas."

So I say today, with all His saints, with all my heart,

Praise Him, all ye people, forever, and ever: for the King Himself deigns to show up here this day, every day, within His Own creation, in our human experience, in human form...in Person !

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

How to Survive anti-Christ

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

A Christian blogger I've followed for some years frequently has some valuable insights.  His most recent post highlighted some kinds of persecution believers will face in the end-times, and made some good points.

I was disappointed to see the comments on that post were more about survivalist tactics (albeit generally discounting those) than anything else.

My comment was that spiritual discernment seems the most important provision we can make for surviving the end-times.  That seems the take-away from Jesus' warning in Matthew 24:24 that it will almost be possible for “even the elect” to be deceived by anti-Christ's false spirit.

We probably see that deception happening even now.  I John 2:18ff says the spirit of anti-Christ was, and is, already active in the world.

Knowing so, it seems wise to test our spiritual discernment by practicing it.

Scripture’s characterization of anti-Christ is that he will be “attractive” in the highest possible degree, on every human scale. That he will be a man more “likable” and appealing, more intelligent, better educated, more "successful" by the world's measure, and vastly more plausible and subtle in his dissembling malevolence than any human “leader” before him.

Our question must be whether we can discern the anti-Christ spirit already operative in current human leaders.  Although its manifestations...particularly that spirit's most distinguishing characteristics, lies, pride, and rebelliousness...are necessarily more clumsy and shabby in operation today than they will be when anti-Christ himself practices them, that means we should more easily be able to discern them.

We have scripture's word that the spirit of anti-Christ is "out there."  His spirit is much more blatantly obvious today than it will be when that "slick" master-deceiver arrives.  If we cannot even see where and how anti-Christ's spirit it is in operation today, we must quickly and diligently seek God for His gift of discernment.